You know how there are those folks who like to get ready for Christmas so early that it should maybe be against the law? Well, I’m that way with Halloween.

Ever since I was a kid, Halloween has been my absolute favorite holiday. Keep in mind that I grew up on a healthy dose of “things that go bump in the night,” cutting my teeth on Goosebumps books and the television show Are You Afraid of the Dark before graduating to the likes of Stephen King and The Twilight Zone.

If it was spooky, I was eager to read, watch, visit or play it, even knowing that there was a good chance that all of those activities would have their intended affect and leave my lying in bed at night, terrified, with the covers wrapped tight over my head. It’s a well-known fact that monsters cannot get through blankets.

That love of Halloween has stuck with me through the years. I no longer go trick-or-treating and gorge on candy, but all of the other aspects that make Halloween so much fun remain a part of my adult life.

All of those things most folks do to get in the holiday spirit around Christmas time, I do for Halloween.

The plan for this weekend is to give the house a good cleaning before putting up all of the Halloween decorations. We don’t go crazy or anything, but the occasional jack-o-lantern and ghost helps remind me that Halloween is just around the corner.

I’ve got a couple Halloween-themed stations saved on Pandora so, starting next week, the music I usually listen to while working will be replaced by “The Monster Marsh,” the theme song to The Munsters and the like.

I always save a couple appropriate novels to read through the weeks leading up to Halloween and, since Mr. King is as prolific as he’s ever been, he still finds his way into the mix on a regular basis.

Finally, there are the movies. I call it my Halloween Marathon, and I usually begin in mid-September and continue on up to the big night.

Once summer rolls around, I do my best to ignore any horror/suspense/thrillers that find their way to Netflix and instead save them for the annual binge. It’s not a nightly thing, but between now and Halloween, I’ll cram in as many creepy flicks as I can find time for, mixing lots of new stuff with childhood classics like Hocus Pocus.

The funny thing here is that I don’t usually do anything on Halloween night. Unlike Christmas, there’s no big morning of presents and a family meal to cap the whole thing off. My understanding is that it’s frowned upon for a grown man to go trick-or-treating if he doesn’t have a youngster or two in tow. Also, let’s face it; my doctor would probably disown me if I tried to eat that much candy.

If nothing else, all of this silliness helps keep me young at heart. When I was a kid, getting dressed up and wandering through the neighborhood on Oct. 31 was a fun, magical time. If I can recapture some of those memories on an annual basis, I consider all of this well worth the effort.